San Francisco’s budget: Too many employees, too few results
Part 10 of 13-part series: A government too big to function
A recent San Francisco Chronicle graph highlights a stunning reality: San Francisco employs more core services government workers per resident than any large city in America.
In cities with populations over 500,000, most employ five to 15 core city/county workers per 1,000 residents. New York and Los Angeles are outliers at the high end, but San Francisco outpaces them all, with over 24 employees per 1,000 residents working in core functions. We like to think of ourselves as unique. In this case, we certainly are.
At that level, it might feel like each of us should have a personal concierge. And San Francisco? It should be the cleanest, best-run city in the country.
Unfortunately, we all know that’s not the case at the moment, but with the necessary changes, it soon can be.
Even more alarming:
— This number excludes over 13,000 additional city employees deemed “non-core.”
— This number doesn’t include an estimated 3,000-plus workers employed by nonprofits under city contracts.
This points to a system where sheer size has replaced efficiency — and where bloat is protected, even when outcomes suffer.
— A third of city government employees work remotely part of the week. Because police duty officers, firefighters, transit operators, and many Department of Public Health workers are unable to do their jobs from home, this means the vast majority of city government office workers have been working from home.
— Fifty-eight percent of city employees don’t live in San Francisco.
This points to a system where sheer size has replaced efficiency — and where bloat is protected, even when outcomes suffer.
Mayor Lurie called for city employees to return to the office four days a week starting late April, this has been delayed until August based on pushback from the unions. This movement back into the office is essential to San Francisco’s recovery, as we saw in parts 5 and 6 of this series. We need to ask ourselves who is working for the best interests of San Francisco … who is working for the best interests of each of us.
We don’t just have a fiscal problem. We have a structural and cultural one within San Francisco government departments. And until we face it head-on, meaningful reform will remain out of reach.
Originally published on The Voice of San Francisco on May 20, 2025 by Marie Hurabiell